1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and an apparatus for medical data processing to calculate the geometries of medical objects from data obtained by medical imaging, wherein an adaptation of static geometries to dynamic events is made. In particular, the present invention is directed to a method and an apparatus for the adaptation of pre-operatively measured, static data to intra-operative, dynamic events.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Imaging medical analysis devices are an indispensable part of medical diagnostics and are a critical basis for careful planning of operations. Tomographic methods supply three-dimensional data of the inside of the body that are converted into spatially surveyable views impressions of the inside of the body with modern methods of medical image processing. The planning of surgical interventions as well as therapeutic measures is facilitated because relevant anatomical structures such as, for example, nerves or fat tissue, bones or tissue equivalent to muscles as well as non-anatomical structures such as, for example, foreign bodies or implants are either isolated from the surroundings that have only secondary informational content, or are shown clearly delineated therefrom.
At present, measurements of patients in real time cannot be undertaken with medical imaging analysis devices. At present, only static exposures of medical objects of the type described above are therefore obtained from the measurements, i.e. rigid exposures of anatomical as well as of non-anatomical structures. The geometrical structures derived therefrom are consequently rigid objects. These objects, however, are not truly representative of the real medical objects they describe, a majority of which such as, for example, organs, change in shape dependent on the body position and, above all, dependent on body functions such as, for example, heart activity, respiration or intestinal peristalsis. The pre-operatively measured, rigid data are therefore only briefly and seldom in geometrical coincidence with the actual geometry of the dynamically deformed medical objects that they represent. Consequently, a superimposition of pre-operatively measured data with intra-operatively obtained image data such as, for example, in an image fusion with endoscopy or ultrasound images, will always lead to a more or less disturbing mismatch. Pre-operatively measured, rigid geometries also cannot be employed in navigation systems or for a robot control since they do not track the variation of the objects dependent on their underlying body functions.